Sarah Miriam Peale

1800-1885

American (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Baltimore, Maryland)

As part of a large and artistically talented family, Sarah Miriam Peale was initially trained by her father. After experimenting with still lifes and miniatures, Peale exhibited her first full-size portrait at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1818. Six years later she and her sister Anna Claypoole Peale, a miniaturist, became the first two woman members of the Academy, an enormously influential Philadelphia institution.

Her oil portraits quickly became sought after by diplomats, congressmen, and other eminent individuals who visited her studios—first in Baltimore and later in St. Louis. Records show that Peale received many more portrait commissions than celebrated male painters of the day such as Thomas Sully and John Vanderlyn. Beginning in 1859, Peale returned to painting still lifes, for which she won numerous awards. She spent the last seven years of her life in Philadelphia, where she lived with her sisters Anna Claypoole and Margaretta Angelica.

Artist profile image: Sarah Miriam Peale, Self-portrait, ca. 1818. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

Objects

Sort By:
image 2022/07/18 edited for social media
Peale, Sarah Miriam 1800-1885
Portrait of George F. Thomae
July 1840
©Collector Systems.
Powered by Collector Systems